Battle Magic (25 page)

That pierced the fog in her brain. She sat straight. “Dokyi, no. They’re my charges.”

“Briar is a man as such things are judged here. Others will look after him and Evumeimei. You cannot take them with you.”

She remembered their restless nights on the way through the pass, when she had roused them both from ugly dreams. Did Dokyi even understand the weird effect the mountains were having on Evvy? Briar was watchful, but he hadn’t spent years of his life raising young mages. “You’ve forgotten what they’re like. Briar seems tough, but he worries himself sick over me. Evvy’s still a child. And the mountains are pulling at her. She should be watched carefully.”

“They will not be able to accompany you. I swear it. No, I will not prevent them,” Dokyi said in response to her glare. “The magic of the Sealed Eye itself will do so. Once you set foot on the path to their temple, your young people will lose you in plain sight. This friend of theirs, this Parahan, will keep them safe. Or they may remain here, but you must take these Treasures into hiding!”

Rosethorn bowed her head, feeling very weary. “I am really the only person who could have done this?”

“I am one of Garmashing’s defending mages,” the man replied. “I took precious time to try to do it myself and failed. I am needed in the capital now.”

“Oh. Forgive me, Honored Dedicate,” Rosethorn whispered. Her heart twisted. Briar would
not
understand. Sadly, Evvy would understand all too well. Evvy expected everyone to leave her sooner or later.

All you can do is deliver this thing and hurry back to her, Rosethorn told herself. Get a grip on yourself, Niva!

She looked at Dokyi.

“Look,” he said, understanding that she was ready to listen. “This pack will keep the Treasures concealed for ten days or so. Anyone who snoops will think it holds clothing. Place the Treasures inside it.” He held the leather pack open for Rosethorn. At first she hesitated to touch them, afraid of what the combined Treasures, even in their silk wraps and boxes, might do to her. When she saw Dokyi’s glare, Rosethorn glared back, wiped her fingers on a handkerchief she kept in her sleeve, and gripped the box by the sides. It felt like any other wooden container, cool and smooth. Rosethorn set the box inside the pack.

Briskly Dokyi did up the ties and buckles that secured it. Once he was finished, he placed it on the table. “Now you must take the map to the temple from my mind. This is why you require no guide. If the map is behind your eyes, no one can steal it from you.”

Rosethorn nodded. She had done spells like this twice, though she did not care for them. She closed her eyes and found the core of her power, the part that was pure magic. It surged up through her arms and into her hands more fiercely than ever before. Carefully she pressed her fingers against Dokyi’s temples.

His Earth magic answered hers. Once again she saw a landscape. She knew it for southern Gyongxe in vivid detail. The Snow Serpent River flowed over its rocks and hollows, plunging into the gorge. The fort lay just below her, with the army camped around it. Now she turned west, following the Snow Serpent River deeper into the country. There were villages on both sides
and temples dedicated to gods she did not recognize. Only once did she spot a Circle temple to the north on the plain. She recognized it by the four-colored banner that flew from the bell tower.

When the Snow Serpent met the Tom Sho River, the map spell drew her south, into hills that were just lower rises of the massive Drimbakang Lho mountains. Inside the first line of peaks the magic pulled her along first one gorge, then another. At last she found the shadowed spot that was her destination, the Temple of the Sealed Eye.

She took her hands from Dokyi’s head. “I should tell Briar and Evvy something,” Rosethorn murmured. She felt dizzy and strange. “Where’s the pack?”

Dokyi gave it to her. “You must rest and have a proper meal. Soudamini wishes to meet you and thank you for saving her brother.”

Rosethorn blinked at him. “Souda-who?”

“Parahan’s twin sister is camped before our walls with troops she has brought to join us. Her name is Soudamini.”

“Oh.” There were mountains in Rosethorn’s head. She rose and swayed.

Dokyi stood and supported her by one arm. “Forgive me. The map is complex. Together with the Treasures, you have borne too much all at once.” He snapped his fingers. The dark bubble around them vanished. “I can only say in my own defense that we are all desperate. The emperor took the God-King by surprise.”

“How bad does it look?” Rosethorn asked, leaning on Dokyi as they walked out into a hallway.

“Soudamini’s warriors have shown they are worth more than their numbers. The eastern and western tribesmen and their
shamans have been coming in to join our armies. I don’t think the emperor has planned for them,” Dokyi explained. “And we still await the armies of the northwest.” He led her somewhere in the fort; Rosethorn wasn’t certain where. If she closed her eyes, she saw the Endless Ocean and the unexplored lands far to the west of Emelan. She tried to keep her eyes open.

Dokyi handed her over to two female dedicates, who gently took her arms. “Let her sleep and eat. Give her a hot bath. Treat her with all honor,” the man instructed them. “And put this among her things.”

To Rosethorn’s drowsy surprise, he casually handed the pack with the Treasures to the younger of the two. “Rest,” he said, and kissed Rosethorn on the forehead. “I will see you later.”

The older dedicate led Rosethorn into a large room. All Rosethorn noticed was the bed, strewn with Evvy’s cats. Promising herself that she would never let Dokyi talk her into anything more than a fishing trip again, she tumbled onto it.

Briar and Evvy had finished their snack and were wondering what would happen next when the main door opened. Parahan came in, his arm around a much shorter person in a yak-skin coat and boots. They were chattering in the language Parahan often used for swearing. While his companion waited to see the general, Parahan came to see Briar and Evvy and filch a couple of their leftover dumplings.

“Who’s that?” Evvy demanded, feeling a little jealous. She could see that Parahan’s friend was female. She wore a long braid of black hair pinned at the back of her head, and a tiny row of rubies that followed the line of her brows somehow. She also had
large golden-brown eyes, a perfect nose, and full lips. She made Evvy feel even more like a grub than she did already. “That’s my sister,” Parahan said gleefully. “That’s Souda — Soudamini! She’s the fierce one and I’m the layabout. There was gossip that the emperor might invade Gyongxe this year or next, so she came from Kombanpur to offer her services and two hundred warriors to the God-King. She heard what happened to me. So now I have my own clothes and weapons, because she prepares for everything, and we are going to fight Weishu, if the God-King will have me.” Parahan indeed had his own clothes: a red silk tunic embroidered with a multitude of birds, blue silk breeches, and proper riding boots. He asked, “Where is Rosethorn?”

“First Dedicate Dokyi took her away for a talk,” Briar said, leaning against the wall. “In that room.” He pointed to the door.

“There’s some kind of magic going on in there, but it’s behind a wall,” Evvy offered. “We can’t even get a peek.”

“Far be it from me to try to peek at mages,” Parahan said. Then he frowned. “Is she all right?”

“Dokyi’s our friend,” Evvy told him. “He wouldn’t hurt her.”

“He’s her, I don’t know, he’s the First Dedicate of First Circle Temple,” Briar explained. “That means he’s sort of the head of all the Living Circle temples in the world. And Rosethorn is a Living Circle dedicate.”

Parahan nodded. “I understand.”

“Maybe he’s telling her that she doesn’t really have to fight the emperor,” Evvy suggested. She sighed. “I would like that.”

“Prince Parahan,” General Sayrugo called.

“Excuse me,” Parahan told them. He went to the table and bowed. “Please, General, here I am only Parahan, a soldier.”

Sayrugo looked him over. “Well, only Parahan with one hundred of Soudamini’s troops to his name, the God-King sent me a message about you.”

“But the God-King doesn’t know me,” Parahan said, unnerved.

“In all my years of service to Gyongxe, I have learned never to try to guess what the God-King does and does not know,” the general replied. “The answer to your question, he says, is yes, you have a job. You may begin here in the south. Soudamini and you are to go west with two of my captains. Move as many villagers as possible into the fortresses between here and the Temple of the Serpents on the Tom Sho River.” Evvy saw that General Sayrugo was showing the road to Parahan on a map on the table. “With those same troops you may then proceed north. You have my permission to cut down every unsanctified piece of Yanjingyi worm bait that gets between you and the capital.”

“Where does that leave us?” Evvy asked Briar in a whisper.

“Wherever Rosethorn says we go,” he replied comfortably.

Evvy wasn’t comfortable. Dokyi had plans for Rosethorn. What if they didn’t include her or Briar? And now that they were indoors, with thick walls between her and danger, she was suddenly too tired to get up. She felt as if she had been pulling rocks out from under the feet of killers for months. She had been sleeping cold at night for years. She’d been hungry again, and terrified. This was a comfortable place. The mountains sang even through the walls. Why did they have to leave? Let soldiers deal with the emperor.

They slept most of that day, and bathed, and put on clean clothes. Evvy introduced the cats to Soudamini. Parahan introduced his rough-voiced twin to the people who had been his companions on the road to Gyongxe. When Souda learned that Evvy and Briar had freed him from his shackles, she insisted on pressing her forehead to their hands, which flustered both Evvy and Briar, though for different reasons. She was fascinated by the tale of their journey and their battles along the Snow Serpent River.

Serious conversation came over that night’s supper with Dokyi, the twins, and General Sayrugo. The discussion about the imperial soldiers in the Snow Serpent Pass, and plans to get villagers to safety along the Snow Serpent River, went smoothly. Then Rosethorn began to explain her plans.

“No!” Briar cried. “This is the most bleat-brained idea you’ve
ever
come up with! You can’t!” He glared at Dokyi. “Find someone else. Look at her! She’s worn-out! I won’t let you do it!”

“Such an ill-behaved child,” Sayrugo commented, looking at her pakoras — ball-shaped dumplings — with a suspicious eye. The Kombanpur cooks who had come with Souda and her troops had provided the meal to welcome Parahan.

“I am not a child!” Briar snapped.

Dokyi tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a smile behind his finger. “Such a bad student, then.”

“I’m not a student, either! Exactly! I’m certified in my own right, and she can’t tell me to go or stay anymore. She has trouble
breathing
up here!”

“Actually, I feel better,” Rosethorn said. She took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows. “
Much
better.” She had eaten all that was put before her and was taking seconds.

“There are benefits to the burden I passed to you,” Dokyi said, though his eyes were on Briar. “I will not tell you my age, because I am vain. I am older than I seem, however, and stronger, due to its influence. She is healthy enough for whatever trials the land may put before her, young man. And it is not your place to question a duty for which her vows have fitted her.”

“Enough,” Rosethorn said when Briar opened his mouth again. “Not
one more word
, understand me?”

For a long moment there was silence and tea drinking. Then Evvy said, “My cats can’t take any more travel. Between sleeping herbs and galloping along they’re not looking so good. I am a bit tired myself.” She rubbed her thumb along the table’s edge. “Might we stay here? I could help defend this fort and the cats would be all right. It’s a mountain fort. There are rocks I can use here, big ones. Maybe Rosethorn and Briar could do more thorns and bar the road to the pass.”

“That is a
splendid
idea,” the general said unexpectedly.